category 4 storm almost a 5 expected to make landfall catastrophic 155 miles per hour winds. the cat 5 is 157. in south florida, tornadoes spinning. they are spinning all around. they are causing devastating damage. >> oh my god! >> brian: key west, waters

rising causing residents to track towards higher ground. >> absolutely nuts. >> brian: more than 70,000 floridians are without power this morning. governor ron desantis urging residents to get out. time to evacuate is come to an end. you need to evacuate now. >> the governor will give another update in just about 30 minutes. we will bring that to you live. first, we have live fox team coverage janice dean tracking the storm's latest path. fox news weather we start with robert ray in fort myers. robert? >> good morning. you know, as light is about to come up here and these rain bands and window really intensify, conditions are deteriorating here in fort myers beach. the gulf of mexico, just a football field over there.

churning up. i was just over there. when it gets light, we will show you that. you can see right now, these heavy bands as hurricane ian is right out there. the eye center is about 70 miles from where i'm standing it's 30 miles wide and the window fell well over 300 miles. as this is coming in. it's very cross to the potential upgrade to a category 5. and where i'm standing right now, the bridge that takes us over into mainland fort myers, we are here strategically because when conditions begin to get too intense, and this storm surge begins to come, in which could be up to a foot, we will leave as will emergency officials we are told. as a matter of fact, in cape coral, just to the north of us, emergency officials have suspended operations because of this window that's coming in. when it drops down below 45 mile-per-hour gusts, they will go back out. in the interim, for precaution, with the window kicking up, we

are prepared, i have a helmet, important. if the breeze starts going we will take shelter. as i'm out here, you have to be absolutely safe. there are very few people that have stayed here during this mandatory evacuation. there are some high rises where people are hunkering down. but, if they have vehicles, the vehicles are in jeopardy. there is no highland here. there is no parking garages, with a second or a third story where you can put the car and create a safety net for it. doesn't exist here on fort myers beach. there are parking garages inland, which is where we will head when we decide to retreat and evacuate off of this island. but, in the meantime, this is raging. hurricane ian potentially historic storm. it will cause mass power outages across the peninsula of florida. it's widespread effect. it's not just where it comes into shore, where the eye wall comes into land. it will make this state an absolute disaster in the coming hours and there are utility

crews prepared to work through it when the winds die down. in the meantime, guys, we are just braving this as it is coming in. these are the beginning of what is going to be a very nasty in connection with few hours as ian will make landfall at some point later this afternoon. >> brian: i know the governor said you don't have to leave the state. but you have to leave. where do you go if you are in fort myers area which would be safe? >> >> at this point, you need to get to the center. the center of the state, potentially, you know, it's too late, really. i mean, if you haven't left, it's too late. but if you can, get inland as far as possible would be the best guidance. this coast line. i just -- where i'm standing right now later today, all of these businesses as this window kicks up. the debris field will likely be intense. the storm surge will be intense, anybody who is -- decided to

stay, if i were you, if you have a vehicle, get in it, get across that bridge, and make sure that you are safe. when you go across that bridge, it's going to be shaking. your car is going to be shaking. you need to be safe and get away from the coast line. the surge is as serious as it gets it. will kill and you do not want to be in a situation where you are jeopardizing yourself or your family or anybody else. you just -- please, if you are listening, and you are on the coast line, get to the center now. have to. >> ainsley: robert, thank you so much. i was talking to janice earlier. she said this is almost a cat 5. 155 miles per hour winds. cat 5 two degrees higher than that at 157. she said we have only had four cat 5s in the history of our country. >> todd: the reason you want to get out now don't jeopardize the lives of the first responders. they stay to save your life but makes it as easy on them as possible. don't force a situation. >> ainsley: a lot of floridians

are probably saying we are used to. this we are in florida. probably going to stay especially because we thought it was going to tampa. now we learn it's going south. i hope a lot of those people in the fort myers area got out and just not thinking oh this is another hurricane, we have seen these before. this is extremely dangerous one. >> brian: going to be lasting a while. you are talking about two days. fox weather multi media journalist brady campbell continues our coverage. she is in orlando. >> good morning, guys. you heard robert saying the the safest place to be if you are going to stay in the state is inland. here in orlando, this is the place while in the path of ian, it's where several or many people have been retreating to. so booking up hotels here or trying to fly out of orlando's airport other clearwater or in naples, they closed down yesterday. so the airport here in orlando it will shut down operations this morning at 10:30 a.m. i looked at the flights that are

still going out. a lot of them show canceled. but there are still dozens still left to go. and at the same time, the airport they will be taking these last moments go ahead and secure the airport. officials there say safety and security comes first. and making the decision to close the airport took a lot of coordination with partners like the national weather service and other airports. and our team spoke with the ceo of the orlando international airport on the rarity of closing down an airport. >> in florida it's a regular occurrence, right? , especially at the state level. even the sea force, we go through different levels of airport closure. so it's just part of what we have to deal with here with the weather conditions. >> exactly. and at the same time, several airlines, including southwest, delta, they are allowing people to skip the fees if they need to go ahead and change their flight

because of disruptions of ian or if they were trying to get out earlier. fly to different parts of the state. just to get to safety. and just to give you guy withs an idea of what we are getting here right now. we know ian hasn't even made landfall right now. we are getting some light rain here in the orlando area. and every now and then, you know, little breeze, so he would just going to be waiting for the impact to reach us because we do know that we are in its path once it makes its way across florida. back to you all here in orlando. >> ainsley: thank you so much, brandy. also orlando universal, orlando, sea world and lego land closed today and also closed tomorrow. hotels they are saying are still open except for the ones at universal those are at full capacity. disney going to stop accepting new guests tomorrow. they are saying anyone who checked in before 3:00 is being asked to hunker down. 3:00 yesterday just to stay in your hotel room. there is a shortage of bottled water and disney guests they are going to be working with you to give you money back or you will be able to redeem your tickets

as long as you use them by the end of next september. universal they are working with you, too. they say mickey is not so scary halloween party and disney halloween horror night is closed and the park is closed. >> brian: we will see where that goes. i also know if you are living paycheck to paycheck the last thing you want to do is go pay for a hotel. got to lee my house, buy gas and go to a hotel. >> ainsley: some are offering discounts which is nice. >> brian: senior meteorologist is tracking the path. >> janice: ainsley talking about the category 5s that have hit the u.s. there have been four. labor day 1935 camille. 1969 andrew. in 1992 and michael in 2018 that hit the panhandle as a category 5. there is a good chance this will be upgraded to a category 5 storm. hurricane hunters found window of 158 miles per hour. you know, 157 is when we start category 5. and there is a good chance of that here we are, 155 just a

couple of hours ago. we were at 120. pressure has dropped considerably 937 millibars. that shows it's strengthening storm. the window go up and the pressure goes down. that's how we know this is going to be one of the most epic hurricanes we have ever covered across this great nation. this is a hurricane hunter information that we have gotten. and 155 mile-per-hour window so, there is a good chance that this will be a 5 before it makes landfall in the next several hours. so, when you talk about the scale, a 5 would be 157 miles per hour plus. this will be a catastrophic event. the coast line will be changed forever. this is a big deal. a strengthening storm making landfall, storm surge will be the deadliest part of that storm and that's why i'm really hoping everyone heefded those warnings all along the coast. fort myers being one of the most vulnerable areas for the west coast of florida. tampa, you are still going to see water rise and then when you talk about high tide, on top of

the storm surge or the storm surge on top of high tide, we could be dealing with over 15 feet. and that will go over homes. that will go over homes and you can't get away from that. so, over the next couple of hours, we think a landfall later on this afternoon. there is a good chance this will be our fifth category 5 storm that has ever hit the u.s. coast line. hurricane warnings all the way inland to orlando where we are going to feel hurricane force winds for duration in some of these areas for 12 to 24 hours. also had storm surge warnings on the atlantic side of florida as well as that storm exits the coast line. so, both coasts now are vulnerable. but the worst of the storm surge, which is the deadly part r. part of a hurricane, is in the area shaded in red. all these vulnerable coast lines and, again, the high tide and low tied, this is coming during high tide. and that's going to be, you know, high tide storm surge, waves on top. catastrophic, potentially deadly

damage. i can't stress that enough. >> ainsley: janice, some of our past hurricanes, would very showed that video of some of your hurricane watchers and guys who go up in the plane. have you seen any of that video? i think the last hurricane we had video of the guys inside of the eye of the storm. >> janice: i'm sure we will see video of that. they are doing life-saving work because of them, that's why we have better tools to measure how strong these hurricanes are. and to see 158 mile-per-hour sustained winds in the core of the strongest winds, i mean that is historic. >> todd: putting their lives on the line in the process to do that work for us. j.d., thank you. for up-to-the-minute coverage download fox weather. >> brian: brian other stuff going on. a fox news alert. did you hear about this. north korea firing two ballistic missiles off of the east coast according to south korea's military and the japanese coast guard. >> ainsley: reported tests come as vice president kamala harris is set to visit south korea later today. >> todd: peter doocy joining us

live from the white house. hey, peter. >> peter: good morning, and vice president harris is on a world tour continuing to clarify president biden's comments in that interview a few weeks ago about potentially putting u.s. troops in taiwan to fight off chinese invaders. >> we remain dedicated to the principles that we have long stated, which is that there should not be any unilateral change to the status quo and that we are committed to peace and stability in the taiwan strait and we will work with our allies. >> peter: president biden skipped the dmz when he visited south korea. but the vice president is going to show up there on her trip to asia and the north koreans are responding already by launching a suspected ballistic missile into the ocean in the vicinity of a joint u.s. and south korean military exercise. >> our government condemns the ballistic missile launch as a clear violation of the u.n. security council resolution and

the provocation that heightened tensions on the korean peninsula and the region and made it clear that it could not be justified for any reason. >> peter: president biden has a pretty packed schedules today but it's all about domestic matters. he has something about hunger, nutrition and health. something about global economic development. something about the americans with disabilities act and then reception with the democratic governors association. nothing listed about these provocations in asia, at least not yet. they are leaving that to the vice president for now. back to you. >> brian: peter, we did not hear that the president was even speaking to the governor of florida in this historic circumstance. do we have a sense of what brought the president to finally make that call and ask republican governor desantis if he needed any help? >> peter: we don't know what led to the call but it was really interesting to hear over the last couple days white house explanations as to why president biden was good not to be calling desantis.

at one point karine jean-pierre said well he never called a republican governor of mississippi during the jackson water crisis and they managed to resolve that or at least get past the worst of it. and they were talking about how these calls don't necessarily determine federal response but the president made plenty of calls to mayors before he eventually decided that it was time to call ron desantis. >> brian: that's not the best answer i have ever heard a press secretary give. i think you might agree. peter, thanks so much. >> ainsley: the governor did say we need to work together regardless of party lines and biden did approve florida's request for a free landfall declaration. >> todd: with that hand it over to carley for headlines. >> carley: mother assaulted by a homeless man in a queens subway now pointings the finger directly at new york city mayor eric adams. elizabeth gomez said quote the mayor said we would have much more cops in the subway and the cops specifically would be patrolling the subways because that's where the worst of the

crimes we are having, especially at places like howard beach station. there was no one, why no protection there? her eye is now swollen shut. just look at that image right there. the suspect also has a disturbing criminal record which includes beating his grandmother to death when he was 14 years old. at the time of the subway attack, he was on parole for a separate stabbing. a texas public safety officer was sent to the hospital after authorities say he was accidently exposed to fentanyl during a traffic stop yesterday. the officer was stabilized after responders administered narcan to reverse the effects of the overdose. police say a container from the scene of the incident tested positive for the dangerous drug. a new report says nearly 70% of americans are looking for extra work to combat inflation. that's what more than 1,000 workers, including full time, part time, and unemployed indicated in a new survey. this after the year over year inflation rate checked in at 8..

those are your headlines, guys, over to you. >> brian: all right, carley, thanks 16 minutes now after the hour. ohio senate race drawing attention as key states up for grabs in november. >> ainsley: we are talking to voters about the top issues. >> todd: lawrence jones live from kermit's family restaurant there in bowling green, ohio. >> lawrence: what you will hear me talk about as we go through every swing state in the country is where the candidates are spending their money. we saw a shift? strategy when it came to ryan. he was once saying he was a moderate. he was saying that he also stood with trump on trade. but now vance is hitting him saying weighs for defund the police. he was not for secure borders. and so there have been a shift. so how are voters taking that shift? i got gene with me. brother, tell me what do you think about this race and what is the most important issue for you? >> well, it's a close race. what we hear on the different

news channels and things going on like that. so, what, 40-some days to go. see what happens. a lot of things change real quickly in the time span. we were a small business. and we were in business for 102 years. and my wife and i retired a year ago. we were married 52 years and still married after working together for 52 years. so that's quite an accomplishment. >> lawrence: that is an accomplishment. y'all are going for vance? >> we are going for vance. we believe what he says. the other guy just made too much of a quick turn in what he is saying. >> lawrence: yyou are not believing him. >> i'm not believing him. >> lawrence: meet this last table. fascinating table. they are here every single morning before the diner even opens up. we have got a farmer, we have got a barber. we have got a lawyer, and we have got a doctor. give me the inside scoop who do you think is going to win this race and what is the most important issue for you, sir? >> well, the economy is the most important issue.

and i hope vance wins it. so close it's hard flip a coin right now and probably stand on edge. you hope it leans to vance. >> lawrence: sir, you were telling meal during of the commercial break that a lot of voters here in ohio feel afraid to say they are a trump voter. and that has impacted the polling. you said you have been called yourself and you won't answer. >> well, i think that a lot of voters that's why the polls don't represent exactly how people in ohio and i'm sure throughout the nation feel. we would like to have society that everybody got along. but, unfortunately, that seems not to exist today. >> lawrence: guys, this group right here, they disagree on some of the issues. buff they have breakfast every morning and they respectfully disagree. that is the demographic of ohio. and this is what the candidates have to get to. they have to be able to state what they believe but not

disrespect the voters. because, they can go either side. i will send it back to you guys in new york. >> brian: battleground state in every respect. thanks, lawrence. coming up state ahead, the u.s. preparing another billion dollars aid package for ukraine bringing the total to 16.1 billion since russia's invasion. douglas murray on that coming next. >> ainsley: fox weather is tracking hurricane ian as it intensifies this morning. the monster storm packing 155 mile-per-hour winds as it's closing in on fort myers. we are awaiting a live update from the governor in just 10 minutes. ♪ ♪ flush

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>> brian: fox weather is tracking hurricane ian. category # storm packing 15 a mile-per-hour winds no joke as it closes in on fort myers this morning. we were just there and it's a mess. governor desantis set to speak live in a matter of minutes. we will bring it to you. in the meantime other things are going on. the white house says russian men who are fleeing to avoid being drafting into vladimir putin's army against ukraine are welcome here. >> there are people out there in russia, russians who do not want to fight putin's war or put their lives or die for it. we believe that regardless of their nationality, they may apply for asylum in the united states and have their claimage indicated on a case-by-case basis. we welcome any folksings seeking asylum and they had should do that. >> brian: comes as the u.s. prepares to send mother billion dollars to ukraine totaling 16 billion in aid since the russian invasion began.

douglas murray joins us now. is it okay to invite russia to come over, douglas? >> no. first of all, the duty of russians who are anti-putin should be to be anti-putin inside russia. that's a very important point, i think. it can't be stressed enough. there has been significant internal opposition in russia. but russian people are against vladimir putin war of aggression they should make themselves heard in russia. the second thing is, of course, there are many neighboring countries where they could flee to. it's extremely hard to get from russia to the united states. very easy for them to get to poland, and other neighboring countries. if we see mass defection, then i'm all for that but no reason why america should be encouraging russians to oppose vladimir putin' to be coming to america. they should be first of all first of all making themselves heard in russia. i do not say that lightly i know the risk that involves. if putin is going to experience internal opposition it will come

from that. >> brian: 98,000 russians have crossed into kazakhstan. some gone to am mongolia and finland. they are running for are the hills. i have never seen that in my life or not heard about the russians not wanting to fight. this was a calculated error of the mobilization of 300,000 so-called reservists, douglas by vladimir putin. >> i can tell you that in russia, the people i speak to say they never believed this was about 300,000 reservist. they always believed it was about a mass mobilization. you couldn't have a partial mobilization. the people who have been called up clearly already we can see this from footage inside russia that's leaked out. we can see that the people who have been press ganged effectively into this war are not happy about it and why would they be? you know, two things here. there is the kremlin line and the reality. am so the point these two things have to to meet. this war is clearly going to be dragging on. that's one of the things we do know now. i know that a lot of americans

feel like a europeans feel giving large amounts of military aid to ukraine it's expensive. there are things we could do at home. all of that is true. but, still, this is russia's war of aggression against ukraine. it cannot be seen to succeed. it would be terrible for peace. and terrible for the western alliance if russia was seen to win. vladimir putin is currently trying to hold europe hostage. he cannot be allowed to win that i think it's quite right the western alliance pushes back. i hope this is successful and there is significant interm opposition in russia. >> brian: did nothing after they took a portion of georgia. did nothing when they took all of crimea. that's why we have got this mess. if we don't stop it here. goodbye poland, georgia, moldova. a series of dominoes. douglas murray, i agree. thanks so much. >> great pleasure. >> brian: still ahead, bracing for impact florida business owner joins us live after he was forced to evacuate after hurricane ian and leave his two restaurants behind.

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♪ >> todd: millions of floridians evacuating ahead of hurricane ian's expected landfall later today. in the meantime governor ron desantis set to give update on the current situation any minute now. phil keating live in tampa with the very latest. >> good morning, now we are dealing with a very, very strong category 4 hurricane with winds of 155 miles per hour. according to the satisfy simpson scale 1 159 miles per hour makes it a category 5. florida is on the threshold of what is going to be catastrophic if not historic hurricane. a torpedo warning also in effect for florida keys to tampa. very dangerous. hurricane does spawn tornadoes and we saw a couple last night. take a look at the streets behind me. downtown tampa should be rush hour and full of cars and

vehicles. it is dead. that's good news in that people are taking all of the warnings pretty seriously. most businesses are not open today. restaurants clearly not open. so, it looks like a lot of people got their supplies in the past few days and are sheltering in place at home right now plane right into the storm and into the eye of what they saw very well formed eye and a massive storm inside 4 to 500 miles wide end to end. i will toss it back to you guys but things are starting to deteriorate. >> todd: all right, phil keating live for us this morning. stay safe. a fox news weather alert. >> florida bracing for a catastrophic category 4 hurricane. our next guest florida

restaurant owner boarding up his two locations in holmes gheech sarasota before evacuating to boca row it unbuddy foy jr. joins us now. your sarasota restaurant actually under construction. how do you prepare for a hurricane with the restaurant that's under construction? >> well, you take everyone and all hands on deck. you go from construction mode to prepare mode. and we have-good news is we had all the equipment there and the map power. you got to pivot. you can't even think twice. >> todd: what is your greatest concern as ian approaches? >> right now my greatest concerns our employees are scattered all over the place. it's hard to keep track of 30 employees. you go to like this fear of what is going to happen to your people. we have to have faith that we are all going to be protected and all be smart and make the right decisions and get cover. we evacuated. we listened. we heeded the warnings. >> todd: buddy, got to interrupt you here. got to go governor ron desantis in florida. take a listen to the governor.

>> fema regional administrator. as of 7:00 a.m., hurricane ian is located roughly 80 miles south, sweater of charlotte county. and it's moving north-northeast at 10 miles per hour. it is now a category 4 hurricane. maximum sustained winds of up to 155 miles per hour. that is knocking on the door of a category 5 storm we expect landfall in southwest florida later today as a major hurricane. and we will slowly move across the central florida peninsula before exiting the northeast florida coast probably some time on thursday. much of southern florida is already experiencing impacts from the storm as it moves closer to landfall. there have been several tornado warnings issued during the overnight hours. and we expect to see that continue today. storm of this magnitude will produce catastrophic flooding and life-threatening storm surge on the gulf coast of florida.

the highest risk areas are ranging from collier county up to sarasota county. the current track has the storm making landfall in charlotte, county. if you are in any of those counties, it's no longer possible to safely evacuate. it's time to hunker down and prepare for this storm. this is a powerful storm that should be treated like you would treat if a tornado was approaching your home. if you are out on the roads, get to a safe place as soon as possible. there is more than 200 shelters open in just the southwest florida region alone. we are already seeing bridge closures, the bridge is closed now from manatee to pinellas county. there are 40,000 power outages reported. outside of southwest florida crews are responding to those power outages. don't go outside in the eye of the storm. it's still dangerous. there's actually a calmness.

if the center of the hurricane is right over you. you think maybe the storm has passed. that is not the case. it's still very discuss dangerous. there is possibility of tornadoes. it would also be very difficult to potentially get back into your home. so even if it seems calm, wait to make sure that the storm has actually passed. once the storm is passed and it's safe to go outside, i urge you to be cautious. avoid downed power lines. avoid standing water. stay clear of damaged trees. if you are using a generator for power, make sure that that is being operated outside your home. do not operate that indoors. and then don't drive in flooded streets. people will look and think they can drive through it. and it doesn't work out well for them. as the storm has approached. we have already had enough winds to have local bridges close. so the bridge on state route 64

avenue east is now closed. the bridge at sr 684 and cortez road has now been closed. and the john ringling causeway has been closed. and that is basically a function of when the winds reach a certain threshold. obviously you are going to see more bridge use suspended given the ferocity of this storm. this morning director guthrie asked for additional airlift, hoist and high water vehicles from the department of defense in coordination with fema. the department of transportation also has 1200 personnel on stand by to perform cut and toss operation. bringing in supplies by plane, boat, and by high water vehicle. all the airports in southwest florida have left behind in place so they will get the runways in good shape once the storm has passed. we have 5,000 florida guardsmen activated. 2,000 from neighboring states. we have air assets.

urban search and rescue teams. stationed now in miami. that will be able to respond over to southwest florida. florida fish and wildlife boat, vehicle assets, water assets and air assets. and the u.s. coast guard is now stage 4 cutters. they also have shallow draft vessels to provide search and rescue assistants to the flooded areas. there are over 30,000 linemen staged and ready for power restoration efforts across the state of florida. that includes linemen across all of our major utilities. and a lot of these linemen are coming from out-of-state. this is major, major effort. of course, the storm has to pass for the ability of them to get in and access what they need to access. but that's going to be a priority and kevin and his team are going to be working hard on that. i want to thank the 26 states that have sent support to us during this time including tennessee, virginia, montana louisiana, new york, colorado, indiana, new jersey, and

georgia. we very much appreciate the assistance. and as this storm hits, we have got massive amounts of assets that are staged, but we are also discussing about ways where we can get more value added support. so most of you said call and we may be doing just that as the recovery efforts go forward. so, this is a major, major storm. it's something that we knew was going to be significant, the strengthening of this over the last night, you know, has been really really significant. it's potentially, that it could make landfall as a category 5. but, clearly, this is a very powerful, major hurricane that's going to have major impacts both on impact in southwest florida but then as as it continues to work through the state. it is going to have major, major impacts in terms of window, in terms of rain, in terms of flooding. so this is going to be a nasty, nasty day, two days.

probably we think now it will be exiting the peninsula some time on thursday. yesterday, based on how fast it was moving. thought it wouldn't be the we weehours of friday morning. this is going to be a rough stretch. we are here to respond to the areas that are affected once the storm has passed. local emergency responders are standing by. ready to go. you know, we, i think most people heeded the warnings of doing the evacuations in those very sensitive locations. but not everyone may have done that and so we understand that a storm of this magnitude is going to be a need, you know, to begin those rescue efforts. kevin guthrie is here for update from florida dem. >> thank you, governor. hurricane ian, as the governor has mentioned, is projected to make landfall this afternoon on the charlotte county coast. this will cause life-threatening storm surge. storm force winds will be felt

throughout the entire state and even isolated tornadoes. i urge floridians who have made the decision to shelter in place to stay indoors and stay off the roads. you do not want to be outdoors or on the roads as a storm of this size is making landfall in your area. it is extremely dangerous. if you have battery operated or hand crank weather radios you should be checking them out. changing the batteries. making sure that they work. power outages will occur. if you get a weather alert for tornado, and as the governor has already mentioned, if you are in the southwest florida area, you should make the same preparations as if it is a tornado going over your house. get to interior room, free of windows, have stuff to protect your head and body from the debris such as blanket, sleeping bag, mattress or even potentially helmets. if there are flash flood

warnings in your area, remember, it is never safe to walk or drive through flooded areas. we continue to coordinate with all of our electrical partners as the governor has mentioned there are over 30,000 linemen staged throughout the city from north central florida all the way down to the -- all the way down to miami. as areas in south florida and the keys begin to experience power outages, remember to contact your service provider, not 911 for power restoration. you can also keep your refrigerators shut. open them as little as possible to help reserve your perishable items. if you are using a generator as we have been saying now for days, remember to keep it elevated on a hard surface. away from doors and windows outside of garages. this will help you stay safe. if residents have any questions about resources for hurricane ian, i urge them to reach out to their local emergency management

or public safety office. this storm is here. it is imminent. i can tell you it is a cat 4 hurricane, nearly a cat 5. i know all of the emergency management directors in southwest florida very well. combined they have over 200 years of experience. they are preparing and they're expecting a cat 5. so, please, stay indoors. stay away from windows. get to an interior location of your house. if anyone has any questions, and they still have phone service. if you need to contact the state to ask tore assistance, we have a cell assistance information line that number is 1-800-342-3557. will as always, please follow us on our social media and facebook and our twitter page at fl

search. thank you, governor for your leadership. >> thank you, governor. florida search and rescue teams are staged in miami and also in central florida. we have over 600 resources to bear. we have fema teams that have come in from out of state. virginia one and two that just literally came back from puerto rico in miami also there to assist. out of the eight teams in florida five are activated. they will have search and rescue dogs. they will have swift water boats. they will go from door to door with engineers and trauma surgeons as soon as as it is safe for them to make access to those neighborhoods. they goal from door to door to administer life-saving support to their missions. when it comes to hurricane response. i will put the state of florida up against any of the 50 states. we have the best professionals and, governor, this the largest response i have ever seen in this state. it's amazing work you and your team have have done.

training for their life for this mission. stay safe. as the governor said hunker down. now is not the time to hit the roads. so we'll be, of course, monitoring the impacts as soon as those -- as soon as the storm moves its way in any given part of the state. the priority is going to get -- need to get personnel in there to be able to launch rescue efforts and then, obviously, pave the way so that we can wring in more supplies to the airports. clearing roads, so that you are olinemen can get in there and restore power. so all of that is standing by. but, this is going to be a major, major storm. you have been following the tracks and seeing, obviously we knew for quite some time that it would be a major hurricane. some of those tracks a couple days ago showed maybe it would weaken as it reached landfall further north. this one has just strengthened and strengthened and it is the real deal. so it is going to do a lot of damage. so people should be prepared for that as kevin said, there is going to be widespread power

outages and those power outages are going to occur not just in southwest florida but in portions of -- other portions of the state and, of course, it's a priority to give those linemen the ability to get in there and we store that people should just be prepared. there's going to be damage to infrastructure with the storm of this nature. and power and communications and all those things can be affected. do what you need to do to stay safe. if you are where that storm is approaching, you are already in hazardous conditions. it's going to get a lot worse very quickly. so, please, hunker down, treat it like a tornado. and make sure that that your friends and family know where you are. we are going to have folks that are going to be -- they are going to be there very quickly. once it's safe. this is the real deal. so, happy to take some questions. >> one of the things about 2.5 million floridians have been under some kind of evacuation order. you touched on this briefly but

do we have any concept of how many floridians heeded that evacuation order? >> i think if you talk to the local counties, i think that i spoke with some of the folks in lee county and they said people are buying large -- abiding by it. it's not going to be everyone. you guys know have been in florida. there will be a major hurricane approaching there will be sometimes people want to go out and surf in that. you just have some people that do that. but, my sense has been there has been by and large interest in treating this thing very seriously across those counties. i mean, i do think that when you have tracks that are uncertain. and this is an inexact science but when they see it in north florida and moving down north of tampa and tampa. some people think well it's probably going to shift again why should i do that? we are at the point now. these are not models, this is what the storm is actually doing. it is going to hit there. that's just the nature of it. i think most people did. of course, we have been stressing to folks in the mobile homes to make sure that they

evacuated. again, my -- talking with the people on the local level. i think a lot of those people did. i don't think it's 100 percent. >> thank you for your introductory. this storm is there a lot of resemblance to charlie in the way it's going to trek across the state and what's your best guess that's going to have on the people of central florida, orange, osceola, seminole counties? >> so, yes, it does have a charliesque feel. i think one of the things that's a little bit different with charlie, again, on the prediction models, it may go central florida at a less intensity than what we had for hurricane charlie. dumping more rain as the governor mentioned earlier today. possibly speeding unjust a little bit to getting out of here in 24 hours vest success 36 hours. that will happen on the rainfall side of the house. again, it does have a

charlie-esque feel but it should not be nearly as catastrophic on the window like we saw with hurricane charlie all the way into central florida. we do expect rapid weakening, but, again, there will be tropical storm force winds, strong tropical storm force winds felt all the way central part and northeast florida as a part of this storm. >> we saw a lot of trees get plowed down during charlie, obviously. >> i think one thing for central florida is because we have had a lot of saturation, you know, those trees are vulnerable. so you are going to see trees are going to come down even with tropical storm force winds. it does not need to be hurricane force. you are absolutely going to see that. that is going to cause interruptions in power and, of course, the shear amount of rain that's going to come down is going to have a major impact across the center portion of the state. and even with the projected exit of the state in volusia county because of what it is going to do when it gets into the atlantic.

you will see impacts all the way up to nassau county and duval county, absolutely. in terms of some of the flooding and some of the other things that you will see because of the effects of this. so they there will be significant effects and you will absolutely see trees. you will see power interruptions. and you will see a lot, a lot of rain and water. >> with the sunshine skyline closing in. i'm sure you will see many more closures similar to that. is there opening back up for first responders, that kind of stuff. >> basically what happens on the bridges. once it reaches a certain sustained window, it's no longer safe to go over. that's when they close it. of course, as soon as the storm passes, and those winds go down, they immediately will go out and inspect the bridge to make sure there is not structural damage and to make sure it's safe and then the minute it's safe, of course, for first responders but also we want to get people back into their homes. and so if people evacuated out

of pinellas county there are a lot of bridges you need to take to get back to that peninsula. we want people to be able to do it. the further away it's away from the really really strong winds, the less likely, i think, you will see major structural damage and bridges. if you look in charlotte, lee counties, you are going to end up in situations where you have a massive storm that's impacting those bridges. and it doesn't mean that there -- these are built very well. but there is a lot that can happen. one of the things that kevin and his team have done with the florida department of transportation is instruct the securing of these barges that are in the water. when we had hurricane sally, you had a barge that was loose ran into the bridge. and it knocked the bridge out. so, that is something that is avoidable. so that's been something -- that message has been sent down that if the storm itself knocks out a bridge, you know, that's mother nature and we just got to work

to remedy that. but if things are being left loose that are then going to ram into the bridge and cause that to be unstable, we worked really hard to get the bridge up in northwest florida back. but it takes time to be able to do it when it has that type of major impact like that. so, all of that, there is sensitivity, they need to have the bridges open as soon as possible but there is also sensitivity to the fact that you have 60 mile-per-hour sustained winds on one of those bridges. you know, that's not a place that you want to be as a motorist. and, quite frankly, it's not safe for our first responders even to be using that. >> given that there is a lot of rain and flooding and substantial storm surge associated with this storm, does it make a different than storms we have had in the past? base believe director guthrie last night you said there is going to be a great humanitarian list going to be needed after this especially considering some people may not have flood insurance and that may be the biggest issue for a lot of them are their special preparations taking this storm maybe haven't taken. >> i would say and i think kevin

would agree in terms of the resources that have been staged, we prepared for dory and that came very close. that was a category 5. that was massive. that was a massive mobilization that we did. we were ready if that would have hit florida. this has been bigger in terms of the mobilization. i mean, the assets that we have are unprecedented in the state's history. and unfortunately, i mean, you know, they are going to need to be deployed. this is a really, really significant storm. in terms of how penal in the aftermath who have damage, so one of the things with the flood insurance is there's folks that are told hey, if you are not in a flood zone, you don't need flood insurance so people buy homes and they don't get it. but the fact is that there are places outside of, quote, flood zones where you absolutely in an event like this could be impacted so fema does have programs that can offer support but the fema support is not going to be equal to what you would have gotten in a flood insurance policy. so, that's going to be something

that we're going to have to look very seriously at in terms of what the impacts are of that. there are a lot of folks that have a homeowner's policy and sometimes they are told that that could also be for flood. those are just different policies. the homeowners is from the window, direct storm damage. the flood insurance obviously from rising waters. there will be debates in people's policies about okay, you had a cat 4. maybe even a 5 hit. yes, your home got flooded, but is that also direct storm damage and not flood and can your homeowner's insurance -- that will be good. i know jimmy will be involved in doing that to try to help florida consumers. but, yeah are, there is going to be a lot of fallout from this in terms of getting people back on their feet. that's why we have done the mobilization that we have done. right now it's about safety. i think most floridians made the proper precautions to keep themselves safe. the ones that didn't, that may end up in harm's way. there is a lot of assets that are staged. aened and those are going to be deployed. we want to help people. even if they made a different

decision. you know, we are all in this together. going to do that. once that kind of life-saving part of the operation is concluded, you know, it's all about getting people back on their feet. and there may be some people that had just losing power. that's important to get them back to normalcy. there is others that may have really significant structural damage to their residence. they are going to need assistance. so, all of that will be part of what will be, you know, radio ellie an unprecedented effort in the history of of the state. i'm going to be, you know, traveling in to north central florida today, to be able to meet with a lot of the linemen that we have staged. i think it's important to just thank them for what they are doing. because their quick response, to be able to help get people back on the grid. really helps with the entire response effort. you know, if you have everyone, no power for weeks on end like we have had in other storms, you know, that makes everything else that we are doing difficult. i mean, i have been through

these storms. you know, prior to being in elected office. it's like, okay, you know the power is going to go out. after a while, people just start to get ansi, it's human nature. the fact that they are here in really huge numbers, ready to go down and owe-they are not only doing their job. they are performing a public service for us. we are appreciative of that and we are going to thank them for that and we would get them deployed, kevin, f dot, they are going to make sure that those roads get cleared as soon as possible. some of that is going to be very, very difficult. because you're going to have a lot of debris. you are going to have a lot of trees. i mean, just think hurricane michael. there are some places a category 5, i mean, you just -- it was like the whole forest came down almost on some of these roads. this is knocking on the door of that and it's going to cause a lot of damage. and so that's going to be a huge priority. it's going to take a lot of manpower. but we're going to use the resources that we need to get it done. okay. thank you.

>> todd: coming out of florida. >> ainsley: that was ron desantis at are press conference. he was a little bit late but he said this hurricane is knocking on the door of a cat 5. he said, quote, this is the real deal. there will be a lot of damage and power outages. >> yeah. it was cat 4. he says right now 155 miles per hour. south florida has already been impacted producing some catastrophic flooding. the sky bridge has already been closed. so this is a serious situation. it's going to be over the course of days. he also went on to say this will impact everybody. including from nassau county to duval county. and i think it's also important to note his calm demeanor. this is big. in some ways unprecedented but we got 30,000 people in places who have been through this before. we heard from a lot of officials they're ready to go. antsy to help. have to be patient.

and he also mentioned something yesterday, i think is important. you got leave and then he said there are safe places to go. heads up. keep cooler heads will >> ainsley: he said, it is too late to leave. you need to hunker down. he said do not try to get in your car and drive. when there are floods, do not try to drive through the water. >> todd: fox weather is tracking hurricane ian in on fort myers. >> it is now a category 4 hurricane with maximum sustained winds up to 155 miles per hour. that is knocking on the door of a category 5 storm. we expect landfall in southwest florida later today as a major hurricane. >> todd: pretty important. florida governor desantis warning residents to hunker down

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